SF Giants eliminated from postseason contention with crushing loss to Cardinals

SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants, for reasons they themselves cannot explain, have operated in extremes. Waves of winning; tsunamis of losing. Awful, then unstoppable.

They lost 13 of 20 after the trade deadline, shipping away Tyler Rogers, Camilo Doval and Mike Yastrzemski as their playoff ambitions slipped. They won 14 of their next 18, each victory an electrical shock to a season on life support.

There was magic when Patrick Bailey banished Tanner Scott’s fastball into the Oracle Park bleachers, a walk-off grand slam to stun the Dodgers.

There was belief when they began their game against the Dodgers on Sept. 13 in a virtual tie for the third and final NL wild card spot.

There was hope when they began that game by tagging Clayton Kershaw for four runs in the first, putting themselves in position to finally snatch that spot from the Mets.

The hope, ultimately, is what kills.

The Giants will not make the playoffs in Buster Posey’s first year as president of baseball operations. They lost nine of their next 11 games following Bailey’s slam. That includes Tuesday night’s 9-8 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, a defeat in which their bullpen allowed six unanswered runs and fumbled a five-run lead. At 77-81 with four games remaining, all they can hope for is to break even.

For the eighth time in the last nine seasons, the Giants will not play in the postseason. For a fourth straight year, the Giants failed to produce a winning season. For the third time in the last four years, the Giants will have a losing record in the second half.

“This is a day we were not looking forward to, and it’s here,” said manager Bob Melvin. “So, it’s disappointing.”

“This year is probably the most frustrating,” said Logan Webb, who allowed three runs over six innings on Tuesday. “No offense to the teams we’ve had before, but this is the most talented team I’ve been on. I think there was a lot of expectations. It sucks.”

Every team speaks with confident tones during the early days of spring, but the Giants’ expectations of playing October baseball were not ill-conceived.

They signed Matt Chapman to a long-term extension at the end of the ’24 season, then fortified the left side of their infield by signing Willy Adames to a seven-year, $182 million deal before the winter meetings. Their ambitions only heightened when Posey cashed in his chips and traded for Rafael Devers, a three-time All-Star, on Father’s Day.

When Devers made his debut, the Giants were 41-31 and only 2.5 games behind the Dodgers for first place in the NL West. With Devers, they’ve won 36 games and lost 50.

Webb pointed to his start against the Dodgers a week and a half back for setting the Giants on this season-ending stretch of misery, an outing where he curiously stopped using his sinker and allowed six runs. If Webb had pitched well, the Giants would be on an entirely different path. While Webb took accountability, the last three-and-a-half months have been defined by missed opportunities.

“We trade for a guy like Devers and we were excited,” Webb said. “It’s kind of hard to pinpoint when things go wrong. Unfortunately, it just seems like we’ve let it stay wrong for a long time, and that’s not a very good recipe for success.”

This loss, in a sense, encapsulated the last third of their season.

The stakes entering Tuesday were simple: If the Giants lost and the Mets won, they would be mathematically eliminated from postseason contention. Webb began his night by allowing three runs, and the Mets wrapped up a win as the Giants entered the bottom of the third trailing 3-0.

With fading hopes, the Giants rallied. They scored five in the third, the key play being when Nolan Arenado plunked Patrick Bailey as he attempted to score on Heliot Ramos’ bases-loaded grounder. Arenado was charged with an error.

By the end of the sixth, San Francisco owned a five-run lead. Bailey and Christian Koss drove in a run apiece in the fifth, then Ramos hit a solo homer in the sixth to become the fourth Giant to hit at least 20 homers alongside Devers (33), Adames (28) and Chapman (21).

Then, the collapse. Iván Herrera’s two-run homer off Joey Lucchesi and Arenado’s solo homer off Spencer Bivens trimmed the Giants’ advantage to one run. In the ninth, Ryan Walker blew another save against the Cardinals by allowing a pair of RBI singles.

San Francisco would not go quietly as Adames put himself in scoring position with a one-out double in the bottom of the ninth. As has been the case for many months, the Giants failed to cash in with a runner in scoring position. Chapman struck out and Wilmer Flores, pinch-hitting for Bryce Eldridge, struck out too.

Game over. Season over.

“We knew going in we had to win tonight,” Melvin said. “It’s something we have to deal with.”

There is optimism for those who wish to seek it.

Adames, Chapman, Devers, Eldridge, Ramos and Jung Hoo Lee are under team control for the foreseeable future. Webb eclipsed 200 innings for a third straight season and will earn NL Cy Young votes. Robbie Ray, who will no longer start on Wednesday as planned, earned an All-Star appearance in his first full season post-Tommy John surgery, and Landen Roupp emerged as a foundational piece of the rotation.

But when this team broke camp, their goal was not to speak in glass-half-full platitudes in late September. Their goal was to play meaningful baseball deep into October. In Posey’s first year at the helm, it is a goal they have failed to reach.

“If there’s one thing about Buster Posey, I don’t think he’s okay with losing,” Webb said. “I don’t think he’s okay with even being .500. He wants to win. I’m not going to play his job because it’s not my job, but I don’t think he’s OK with this. I don’t think there’s a lot of people OK with this in this clubhouse.”